UNCONDITIONAL LOVE

Have you ever done all that you can to 'save' someone you loved? Have you ever wanted someone you care about to change, to heal, to grow, to love themselves? To love you? Let's be real, we ALL have been there one way or another. The need or DRIVE to 'INSPIRE' someone we cared about to change. We only want for them to be happy, RIGHT? Well, I have come to understand, for myself anyways, that you cannot, and I repeat cannot, 'Save' anyone, and you cannot make anyone change. They have to want change for themselves, I repeat, THEY have to want change for themselves.

PEOPLE DO THE BEST THEY CAN WITH WHAT THEY KNOW, BASED ON HOW PRESENT, CONSCIOUS, AND AWARE THEY ARE. 

But.. we can LOVE them. And I don't mean, the sort of love that causes us to want them to change, or to heal the shadow parts of themselves. I mean UNCONDITIONAL love. And by that I mean, NO CONDITIONS. And by no means does that mean you become a door mat, you do not even have to be around the person to love them UNCONDITIONALLY. All you have to do IS show up, whether you show up PHYSICALLY, or ENERGETICALLY, UNCONDITIONAL love knows no bounds, knows no obstacle. Send them love, and send them LIGHT. 


We all have those people who are apart of our Journeys, and yes they are there for a reason, but the truth's that, even though we may not understand them, or understand how they treat us, or maybe how they see the world, that's not about us. I repeat, for my own sake, THAT'S NOT ABOUT US. And we cannot take on the world all by ourselves, we have to understand that they too, have a path to follow, and though that path may be very bumpy path, or one you don't want to be on, can you love them anyway? Can you choose to see them for who they really are? When we place Judgement on others, we really place Judgement on ourselves. 

We often say that love UNCONDITIONALLY. I mean, I hear people say those terms a lot, and yet I see those same people, MYSELF INCLUDED, turn around and retreat that 'UNCONDITIONAL LOVE' the moment the present CONDITIONS don't match up to what they wanted.  

Are you even aware of the CONDITIONS you have placed on your RELATIONSHIPS, on the people you love the most, or the ones that are apart of your path whether you want them to be or not? I know that for me, I have become very aware of the CONDITIONS I have placed not only on others, but on myself as well. However, yesterday, I had a total wake up call, or as Oprah would say an 'Aha' moment. I had Robert Holden's awesome Hay House RADIO show on,  and as he talked to a very lovely woman, he spoke the most BEAUTIFUL words, and I knew they would change my outlook from here on out. 

'GOD HAS NEVER TRIED TO HEAL ME, HE ONLY LOVES ME'

'GOD DOESN'T SAY, TODAY I AM GOING TO HEAL YOU, HE SIMPLY LOVES ME'

HOW BEAUTIFUL IS THAT? Honestly? He only loves me. I heard those words and started to reflect on the CONDITIONS I have placed on those closest to me, my parents, etc, and how much I (ego) wanted to save them. How much I (ego) needed them to change, needed them to be on the same path as me, to understand me, to love themselves, to love me. Granted, these all sound pretty normal, but that's not my work, that's not for me to carry on my shoulders, or on my heart. All I need to do IS love them, love everyone, UNCONDITIONALLY, and only then can I love myself the same. If I choose to constantly place CONDITIONS on others, and choose to see what's 'wrong', I deny myself the very love I had yearned for all along, I deny myself the chance to see past the ILLUSION that we are separate. 

And don't get me wrong, to actually show up, and love someone UNCONDITIONALLY, well that's one hard lesson and maybe the most BEAUTIFUL and PROFOUND one we can learn. No matter how much someone may push your buttons, send them love. No matter how dark the path they have walked, send them LIGHT. No matter hurt you feel, send them love. Send them FORGIVENESS. Send them hope. To love someone UNCONDITIONALLY says to them, yourself, and to the world, 'You are perfect the way you are, because you are DIVINE love. You are enough, and you are loved, no matter what, and I'll show up for not only myself, but for you, because we are love.' 

Are we not all on the same Journey anyways, one way or another? Let's choose to love one another. Let's choose to love ourselves enough to let go and release all of those CONDITIONS we place on ourselves and on everyone else. They create walls, they create separateness, they create ILLUSION. Even when you feel you have to walk away from someone for your own WELL BEING, and chances are one day you'll have too. So walk away, head held HIGH, and pebbles of love at your feet for those who may one day need them. 

Could you?!

Could you allow yourself to let go, for even one moment?! To take a step back and look at yourself, through eyes of love, rather than from a place of fear. Could you, for even one moment, surrender to your true self, and SHINE?! To know that you were created from love, and that you are meant to own your power, to go after whatever you may seek. Our Journeys are not about PERFECTION, but rather, progress, movement, and RISING up after we have crumbled to our bottom. Wherever you are on your path, could you allow yourself to leap? To take that one EPIC step towards the LIGHTHOUSE of love that you were always meant to follow. Could you, for even one moment, see how BEAUTIFUL you are?!

 >Photo Found on Tumblr<

Hello, Thank You, and Goodbye

The water fell from the sky. 
I heard her say Hello,Thank you, and goodbye. 
I had searched for so much more than those few words. I had yearned to feel her love, I had hoped for her presence. To merely know we were somehow connected based on more than our blood, for her to see me, even once, even for a moment. 

Hello, Thank you, and goodbye, 
words I have heard all too often. A sense of defeat, a heart on the mend of broken. The softness of those words, I could have allowed them to swallow me whole, and stay oh so small. 

But I choose to see her ,then, now, even though she closes her eyes to me. I choose to see her. She's beauty beyond words, she's a star, and always has been. So strongly protected, so far from her truth, how could she see my soul, when she had turned away from her own. 

Tears had fallen down my face, and caressed my freckled cheeks. Sorrow from my past had become my present, I could be angry, I could feel let down. But what I saw was her sadness. What I saw was her own story. What I felt was love for the wondrous soul who brought me here. 

BE THE LIGHT, was what I heard through the tears. BE THE LIGHT. Open your heart to yourself, open your heart to her. Take down your own walls, see your own soul, and see past the walls she has created. 

Hello, Thank you, and goodbye. Words I had heard all too often, became new to me.  Hello to second chances. Hello to open hearts. Hello to FORGIVENESS and COMPASSION. Thank you to WHISPERS of profound words of love, and Thank you to moments of sorrow, moments so raw they break you open. 

And goodbye. Goodbye to the sad story I have told myself for far too long. Goodbye to the need for you to be anyone other than who you are. A soul, the same as me, on your own Journey of self-love and DISCOVERY. 

BE THE LIGHT, was what I heard through the tears, and so I shall be. FIERCELY, and fearlessly, I shall BE THE LIGHT for you, and for me. Here's to the day, both of our hearts, WILL LIGHT UP THE SKY. 

Namaste

To Ground Oneself

>Photo Found on PINTEREST<

We LIVE IN A WORLD that's so consumed by a false sense of Freedom, a false sense of peace. A world that teaches us to look OUTSIDE of ourselves, when the only way to true freedom and peace IS WITHIN. I spent so many years on AUTO-PILOT, and though there were moments of CLARITY, I had not even been grounded WITHIN my body, not even really connected to my soul. Sounds so surreal to me now as I reflect on where I have been and on where I am. When started my Journey to self-love, and my SPIRITUAL AWAKENING, I went and sought a hand to help me through the darker of days, to help me come bacK to my heart and my truth. That hand that the UNIVERSE so perfectly connected me to, was the hand of a man, who has changed me, completely and fully. That man's now someone I am happy to call a dear FRIEND, and truly, my GUIDE, and one of the only teachers I feel taught me matters that well, matter. 

That man, my own personal guru so to speak, taught me many, many lessons. But the one lesson he taught me that I go back to over and over, was to be GROUNDED. I remember the very first day I went and sat down across from my dear FRIEND, and he told me I was not grounded. That I was not presently connected to my truth, and that I was so scared of the present space I had created, that my soul had fled for help. Grounded. To ground oneself. I can honestly say I had never heard the term or even the concept to be grounded, ever, until that day, when he spoke those beautiful words. They changed me, and they continue to change me every day. 

How could I fully LIVE, how could I fully be present, when my soul's not fully connected to my heart, to my body, my TEMPLE, my LIGHT? To ground oneselfs to be blanketed by a handmade quilt of peace, a peace that takes you back to what's real, and allows you to see past fear, see past ILLUSION. 

When I started to fully understand the grandness of the art of being grounded, I was able to focus on what really mattered to me, and I was able to release all of those STORIES we create that never really serve us. As all paths go, yoga, MINDFULNESS,the way we eat, how we create, to learn to be grounded takes PRACTICE. A CONSCIOUS CHOICE you make every day to be grounded, and maybe even moments, an hour here or there. Trust me, when you have been ungrounded for years, a few hours of pure grounded BLISS feels more than enough to start. I now know that every moment I am stressed, or upset, or have created my own sense of chaos, that I am not grounded. There's so much power that comes once you are aware of that, once you know there's a better way, a spectacular,EUPHORIC way. 

So maybe ask yourself, do you feel grounded? Do you feel connected to your souls core purpose, to your heart, and do you feel yourself apart of every ounce of your body, your TEMPLE? Subtle changes, every day, every moment, can completely change the way you see yourself, see your world, and how you connect to both. 

A few ways I love to ground myself are

~ A long walk outdoors, surrounded by nature and my loved ones, or some days alone. 

~ A good hug of a TREE. No really, I hug TREES more often than not.Totally recommend. 

~A barefoot stroll on grass,a sandy beach by the ocean, Feel your body connect to Mother Earth. 

~ Yoga, of course, grounds me to my very core. 

~ MEDITATION, whether you have a few spare moments or an hour, take what you can. 

~ A hot,steamy bath full of Epsom salts and ESSENTIAL OILS. 

~ Have FUN, play, be goofy, and connect to yourself and your loved ones. 

~ Journal,blog, create, however you create, there's total BLISS that comes from that, and you can connect to your heart completely. 

~ Prayer

~ And above all else, breathe you wondrous soul!!

That man I sat across from that day, that open-hearted soul, taught me one of the most valuable lessons I have ever been taught, and I am FOREVER GRATEFUL for the love and KINDNESS he bestowed upon me that day, and every other we have spent UNRAVELLING who I thought I was, and who I thought I had to be. He has helped me every step of the way, to reconnect to my HIGHER self, to my goddess WITHIN. And I hope these words, the concept to ground yourself, to connect to your breathe and your body, serves you and can maybe allow you to connect to your Inner Goddess as well. 

Peace + Love 

Only Love's Real

Masks, who we feel we are supposed to be, and who everyone else wants us to be. The face we put on to make the rest of the world happy, the perfect person who only feels HAPPINESS. We have all been there, or we know someone who has. I know for me, personally, I have had to really go deep WITHIN myself and accept that I am enough exactly as I am. I have come to a place where I know the only way I can be truly happy, and at harmony's when I am my AUTHENTIC self. What does that mean?

For me, to be my AUTHENTIC self means to accept all parts of me. The good and the bad (or at least what we have been made to see as bad), the LIGHT and the dark. All of the energy and love that flows through me, and all of the sadness and sorrow I have to face so that I may heal. These are all parts of me, and they all make up who I am. The moment I allow myself to accept myself, fully, and completely, then I can allow the energy that does not serve me to pass through. 

I am a VIBRANT soul, a person who dreams of love and knows love can heal us all. A person who feels every EMOTION, and feels most at home when I am at peace WITHIN myself, and when I am surrounded by POSITIVE, wondrous, souls, and loved ones. But I have days when I feel sad, really sad, and days when I feel angry, and scared, and unsure. I know these are all an ILLUSION, that they are not real, because ONLY LOVE'S REAL. I know these EMOTIONS are there for a reason, that I feel them for a reason. To learn from, to accept, and move forward from. We are all a makeup of the energy we feel, and the energy we must release, so that we may grow and blossom. And yet we are taught that we are supposed to have IT ALL TOGETHER always.

Perhaps we are meant to feel, really feel how we feel, and feel the energy that comes up for us, so that we can LOVINGLY love all parts of ourselves, and trust that we are love. 

How can we get to the place of INNER peace and self-acceptance when we are so scared to AUTHENTICALLY be ourselves?

 To be real, completely honest, and own our struggles as much as we own our successes. The moment you accept your struggles, no matter how bad they may seem, as a BEAUTIFUL part of your path to ENLIGHTENMENT then you start to take the shame away. And all those ILLUSIONS that seem to keep us stuck, well they start to fade away more and more. At the end of the day we all go through what we are meant to go through, and the MAGICAL part's that we can take our power back, moment by moment, when accept ourselves fully. When we start to change what we see as good and bad, to STEPPING STONES to our truth, to our love. How can you start to be AUTHENTICALLY you now? Maybe when someone asks you how you feel, be honest, whether you feel truly happy and great, or maybe sad, or you have low energy, maybe that you are HEALING. There's so much beauty that comes from honesty. When we let go of the need to PAINT THE PERFECT PICTURE, and see that we are perfectly IMPERFECT the way that we are. 

Take down the mask, let go of the person you feel you are supposed to be, the person someone wants you to be, and open your  heart to who you are, to the love that you are. There are days we all need rest, days we need a hand to help us through, and then there are days that we SHINE, that our souls RADIATE. Maybe we can learn to accept that together, accept that we are awesome, even when we cannot see past all the other B.S. Accept that when we are AUTHENTICALLY ourselves we learn to truly love ourselves, and when we truly love ourselves, we come back home, come back to that peaceful place where we know and feel that only loves real. 

Sweet sweet MAGIC

>Photo by Tessa Barton Photography<

The truth does not always come to us as we may have IMAGINED. Our paths and our soul's purpose do not always come to us the way we would want them to. PATIENCE, that's the key. Add an open-hearted SPIRIT and the truth always comes. And what makes your soul sparkle flows to you naturally. 

The funny part's that for me, the hardest part's to trust that I know my truth. To trust that I am on the path that has been so BEAUTIFULLY created for me. Ego wants us to create endless amounts of B.S. that only detour us from our truth, from our endless love, from the MAGICAL souls that we are. I do my best to remember to connect to my breath, to really feel my breath as I INHALE, and as I EXHALE. So often we forget to breathe, or at least I know I do. And I mean really breathe the sort of breath that centres you, grounds you,connects you to all that serves you and your purpose of love. The sort of breath that allows you to be MINDFUL. 

Sweet, sweet MAGIC. Breathe that sort of breath. 

Our breath, our truth,our soul's sparkle, our SPIRIT, our true purpose, they are all so completely connected. And I feel as though they all come together so wonderfully the moment we choose to trust. Trust that PRIMAL part of us that knows us better than anyone else ever could,that knows what sets our soul's on FIRE. You know you have felt that when all you want to do's shout out to the world YES,I have found what connects and grounds me to JOY.

A JOY that stems from pure,sacred love. 

I have learnt that for me, personally, PATIENCE can save you. When you let go of the need to force outcomes. When you completely surrender to what the UNIVERSE has planned for you. What GOD has planned for you, whatever GOD means to you. Trust. And TRUST that you have been GUIDED to exactly where you are at THIS VERY MOMENT for a reason. Open you heart and trust. Trust your truth. And as always, breathe. Breathe that sweet,sweet MAGICAL breath. 

The art of FORGIVENESS

It was not that long ago that I truly thought that to FORGIVE someone was weakness on my part, that that somehow reflected onto me as not strong enough. I thought that to forgive someone was for them, that the purpose was to let them off the hook for however you may have felt wronged. 

When I started my Journey, or as the awesome Brene Brown would say, my breakdown spiritual awakening, I learnt that to FORGIVE was about my Inner peace and my peace only. I learnt that the art of forgiveness allowed me the chance to move past LIMITING BELIEFS and become whole. Somewhere along our paths, we start to harness a whole lot of resentment, anger, and overall sorrow. We tend to hold grudges, and replay over and over why we are 'mad' or how awful that person was to us.

If I could go back, I would tell myself to let go, to forgive. To hang on to all that sorrow, you really only hang onto stagnant energy that does not serve you, that actually does a whole lot of harm to you and your soul, to your true essence. 
The art of forgiveness does not let the other person off the hook, you let yourself off the hook. You allow yourself to move forward, to put forth your energy towards your true heart's DESIRES. You bestow upon yourself a MIRACULOUS GIFT.

And the real beauty comes when we choose to surrender to forgiveness, and we actually forgive ourselves, for whatever the reasons may be. That's when the beauty of true self acceptance starts to play, and eventually peace and wholeness starts to dance at our feet. For me, personally, the moment I forgave those I felt had wronged me, so much old energy was released and I had created space for growth, for a fresh start. I took back my power. 

I chose to no longer attach myself to my past. And my sorrow no longer had an RSVP and a plus one to my future. I knew I had a story to tell, and I wanted that story to be my truth,and the only way to my truth was to release all that no longer served me. It has not always been easy, and I have to remember the exact words that I type here day to day. That's why we PRACTICE. 

So, maybe, when you come across an event that would normally cause you to harness anger or sadness or even fear, send love and LIGHT to yourself, and to whomever was apart of the event. Take a deep breathe, and ask yourself whether that energy serves you, whether your peace's worth that resentment. ALL we have to do's be WILLING. Show up, and say to yourself or even out loud, 

I am ready to FORGIVE, I am open to FORGIVENESS, I am at peace. 

Take a deep breathe, and allow your INNER GUIDANCE to take care of you. 

The Answers You Seek

>Photo found on Tumblr<

I have thought long and hard about what my message to the world,about what my soul’s purpose was. I have done my best to force the answers to appear, and even try to control the outcome. What I have found’s that the harder I try to come across these profound answers, the further away they appeared, and the further away I became from my truth.

So I surrendered! I opened my heart up to the my source, and I slowly began to learn to trust. I trusted that the answers I seek would come to me when I was ready for them.

One of the most profound answers that came to me was that I had to truly embrace the unknown and to trust the ebbs and flows of my Journey. The changes are constant, and they are pure beauty. To be able to go through complete sorrow and then come through eyes open, and heart open, that to me’s one of the greatest comforts, almost as though someone has wrapped a warm blanket around you and you completely melt from that comfort, from the safeness you feel.

That warm blanket of comfort, the safeness, and the courage to trust, they came to me through MEDITATION.  

I can honestly say that meditation was one of the key factors that saved me and taught me how to love myself. When I actually allowed myself to relax, and to breathe, I was able to reconnect to my true essence. I was able to reconnect to love. The process was not always easy, and took months to really  allow myself to get to that place.

The hardest steps are usually the ones we know we have to or need to take.

Meditation allowed me to go within, and to connect to who I really am. Meditation opened up the space for me to heal, and to let go what no longer served me. Day to day, I have been able to release fear, and to let go of fear based thoughts and doubts that kept me closed off to my soul’s purpose. That kept me closed off to pure, sacred, love and harmony.

Whether you have never meditated before, or whether you do so regularly, the peace and answers you seek are ready for you the moment you allow yourself to open up to them. So start somewhere, start anywhere, allow yourself to reconnect to your truth, and to come through the fog that fear has created for you.

We can always choose love, and can always choose to heal, no matter what we have been through. We all have a story, and we all can create a story of courage,love and trust.

WHAT YOU SEEK IS SEEKING YOU.  RUMI 

><Post from my former blog><